The Naked Gun (2025) Review — Liam Neeson Goes Full Himbo and It Works

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures PH

It’s been way too long since a big-screen comedy made a whole theater laugh together from start to finish, the kind of movie where you can feel the ripple of chuckles turning into full-on belly laughs, and you catch yourself grinning before the scene even ends. That’s the rare energy The Naked Gun brings back, and it does it by taking something familiar, turning it on its head, and letting the cast run wild with it.

Liam Neeson doing comedy will always be a little funny before he even says a line. He has that serious, weathered face and that “I will find you” voice we all know from years of action movies, and there is something instantly absurd about putting that persona in a world where banana peels, pratfalls, and awkward one-liners share space with car chases and explosions. The beautiful part is that this movie knows exactly how to use that without ever making him the cheap punchline. Instead, he plays a slightly clueless but strangely capable cop who bumbles through chaos and somehow still lands on his feet. From the first scene, the movie just commits, telling you “this is ridiculous and we’re not slowing down to explain anything,” and if you’re on board, the ride is a blast.

Akiva Schaffer directs like someone who understands that comedy needs to move but also needs to breathe. The pacing is quick enough that you never sit in a joke too long, but not so quick that you miss the beats that really sell the humor. You can feel the Lonely Island influence in the way the setups are just smart enough to make you feel clever for catching them, but the payoffs are proudly dumb in the best way. The tone never tips into self-awareness overload. It just lets the absurdity exist alongside the straight-faced delivery, and one deadpan look can hit just as hard as a slapstick fall. If you miss a joke, they are already onto the next one, and that momentum keeps the laughter rolling.

The cast is a big reason this works. Neeson leans into this dim but overly confident version of himself and never winks at the audience, which makes it even better. Pamela Anderson brings effortless comic energy and matches him beat for beat, with moments that land because she sells the ridiculousness without overselling the joke. And honestly, it’s just awesome to see her having the time of her life in general these days, especially after her career revival took off in full swing thanks to her performance in 2024’s The Last Showgirl. That role reminded everyone just how magnetic she could be on screen, and here she carries that same spark — a mix of confidence, freedom, and pure joy — into a completely different genre, which makes her scenes pop even more. Paul Walter Hauser quietly steals scenes with low-key perfect line deliveries that sneak up on you. Sometimes you realize how funny he was only after the audience starts laughing and you think, “Oh wait, that was brilliant.”

The writing is tight without feeling mechanical. Schaffer, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand know that the funniest moments happen when characters take themselves seriously while the world around them unravels, so they lean into that. The jokes are silly, sometimes outright dumb, but they’re never lazy. Even the throwaway gags have intent behind them. It’s been a while since I’ve sat in a theater for a studio comedy and heard that kind of consistent, shared laughter from start to finish, and that collective energy makes the movie feel bigger and better than it probably is on paper.

If I have one small gripe, it’s that I wish there were a few more of those classic Leslie Nielsen-style, completely out-of-nowhere gags that blindside you and leave you laughing so hard you miss the next two lines. This version plays it a little more structured, going for clean setups and sharp payoffs instead of total chaos. It works for the tone they’re going for, but a small part of me missed the “anything can happen” unpredictability of the originals. Still, the movie never loses its groove. That’s rare for a revival, because usually they either reinvent too much or play it so safe it feels like a half-hearted copy, and this one avoids both traps.

There’s no big moral lesson hiding under the slapstick, no heavy moment where it tries to be profound, and that’s exactly the point. Sometimes you just want to sit in a theater, laugh with a bunch of strangers, and walk out feeling lighter than when you came in. The Naked Gun delivers exactly that. It’s playful, confident, and built by people who know how to make a joke work on the big screen. In 2025, where so many comedies are either straight-to-streaming or too scared to be truly silly, this feels like a small miracle.

CINEGEEK RATING: A-